The search is on for Rhode Island’s next historian laureate.
Secretary of State Gregg Amore has launched an open call for applications through Feb. 21. Patrick Conley, the first and only person to fill this voluntary role, will not be seeking reappointment after his term expires on Feb. 1, Amore’s office announced.
Conley, 87, of Bristol, was first appointed by then-Secretary of State Ralph Mollis in 2012 when a state law established the position. Conley was officially reappointed in 2020 by then-Secretary Nellie Gorbea. State law specifies that the historian laureate serves a five-year term.
Donna Faiza, an office manager and paralegal for Conley, confirmed that he was stepping down when his term ends. She said a news release with a statement from Conley would be issued on Monday.
State law is fairly broad in outlining the duties and qualifications of the historian laureate, who receives no compensation and has no official status.
In the first hours of his second term, President Donald Trump pardoned nearly everyone convicted of crimes associated with the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol – including former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio – and commuted the sentences of 14 more, including Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes.
CNN reported that nearly 1,600 people have been charged and about 1,300 have been convicted of crimes committed on that day. There are about 300 cases “still active and unresolved,” CNN reported.
According to a Washington Post analysis, 14 leaders of far-right militant groups Oath Keepers and Proud Boys have been convicted of seditious conspiracy. And 379 people have been charged with felony assault; most of them have been convicted already. though some are still awaiting trial. Trump also ordered the Justice Department to dismiss all pending indictments against Jan. 6 defendants.
To understand the situation, Jeff Inglis, a politics editor at The Conversation U.S., spoke with John E. Jones III, a retired federal judge who was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush and confirmed unanimously by the Senate in 2002. Jones is now president of Dickinson College.
What’s the difference between a pardon and a commutation?
A pardon essentially wipes away the offense and restores the constitutional rights that a person convicted of a federal felony crime would be deprived of, such as the right to vote and to travel unimpeded. Technically, it does not mean they’re not guilty of the offense, but it washes away all the consequences of the offense.
A pardon can be anticipatory, but in most cases historically it’s given after a person has been convicted of a crime, or at least charged.
A commutation means that, essentially, the president believes the sentence is too harsh or too long. The commutation could either let somebody out of jail immediately and terminate their sentence or could shorten the amount of time remaining for them to serve.
The key difference is that a commutation doesn’t change the fact of a conviction and doesn’t wash away the consequences.
Gotta get the money for billionaire tax cuts from somewhere, right?
Phil Galewitz, KFF Health News
Under President Joe Biden, enrollment in Medicaid hit a record high and the uninsured rate reached a record low.
Donald Trump’s return to the White House — along with a GOP-controlled Senate and House of Representatives — is expected to change that.
Republicans in Washington say they plan to use funding cuts and regulatory changes to dramatically shrink Medicaid, the nearly $900-billion-a-year government health insurance program that, along with the related Children’s Health Insurance Program, serves about 79 million mostly low-income or disabled Americans.
The proposals include rolling back the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicaid, which over the last 11 years added about 20 million low-income adults to its rolls. Trump has said he wants to drastically cut government spending, which may be necessary for Republicans to extend 2017 tax cuts that expire at the end of this year.
Trump made little mention of Medicaid during the 2024 campaign. The first Trump administration approved work requirements in several states, though only Arkansas implemented theirs before a federal judge said it violated the law. The first Trump administration also sought to block grant funding to states.
House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) told KFF Health News that Medicaid and other federal entitlement programs need major changes to help cut the federal debt. “Without them, we will watch this country sadly enter into fiscal collapse.”
Frida and Joey got their shots yesterday. Photo by Will Collette
When most people think about vaccines, they typically think about humans: Experts warn that when large numbers of people are unvaccinated, it can lead to severe consequences, including disease outbreaks and higher rates of illness and death, particularly among the most vulnerable. The economic costs to society can also be substantial.
However, vaccines also provide important protections for our nonhuman companions, including the most common pets: dogs and cats.
Lifesaving HIV treatments. Cures for hepatitis C. New tuberculosis regimens and a vaccine for RSV.
These and other major medical breakthroughs exist in large part thanks to a major division of the National Institutes of Health, the largest funder of biomedical research on the planet.
For decades, researchers with funding from the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases have labored quietly in red and blue states across the country, conducting experiments, developing treatments and running clinical trials. With its $6.5 billion budget, NIAID has played a vital role in discoveries that have kept the nation at the forefront of infectious disease research and saved millions of lives.
Then came the COVID-19 pandemic.
NIAID helped lead the federal response, and its director, Dr. Anthony Fauci, drew fire amid school closures nationwide and recommendations to wear face masks. Lawmakers were outraged to learn that the agency had funded an institute in China that had engaged in controversial research bioengineering viruses, and questioned whether there was sufficient oversight. Republicans in Congress have led numerous hearings and investigations into NIAID’s work, flattened NIH’s budget and proposed a total overhaul of the agency.
More recently, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the NIH, has said he wants to fire and replace 600 of the agency’s 20,000 employees and shift research away from infectious diseases and vaccines, which are at the core of NIAID’s mission to understand, treat and prevent infectious, immunologic and allergic diseases. He has said that half of NIH’s budget should focus on “preventive, alternative and holistic approaches to health.” He has a particular interest in improving diets.
Even the most staunch defenders of NIH agree the agency could benefit from reforms. Some would like to see fewer institutes, while others believe there should be term limits for directors. There are important debates over whether to fund and how to oversee controversial research methods, and concerns about the way the agency has handledtransparency. Scientists inside and outside of the institute agree that work needs to be done to restore public trust in the agency.
But experts and patient advocates worry that an overhaul or dismantling of NIAID without a clear understanding of the critical work performed there could imperil not only the development of future lifesaving treatments but also the nation’s place at the helm of biomedical innovation.
Lawmakers return to Smith Hill to two very
different chambers, and one big problem.
In the Senate, the leadership drama that had been simmering
since the last session came to a head during the annual leadership vote, when
12 senators, all Democrats, voted “present” instead of voting to re-elect
Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, D-North Providence, for a new term of
leadership for the chamber.
It also resulted in a changing of the guards. Sen. Alana
DiMario, D-North Kingstown, was demoted from chair of the Senate Environment
and Agriculture Committee. In her place, Ruggerio appointed Sen. V. Susan
Sosonowski, D-South Kingstown. It’s Sosnowski’s second time as chair of the
committee; she led the eight-member body for much of the past decade, before
assuming leadership of the Senate Commerce Committee in 2021.
Over on the other side of the building, the House of
Representatives was a very different story. No drama, no leadership fight, just
a near unanimous vote for Speaker Joe Shekarchi, D-Warwick, to lead the chamber
again.
But outside of any opening-day drama is a bigger problem:
the state’s looming budget deficit, estimated to total more than $300 million.
The final numbers won’t be known until the state budget office makes its final
estimate in May.
That’s bad news for state environmental groups seeking
funding for new programs or money to beef up existing environmental
enforcement. In its biannual Green Report Card released last fall, the Environment
Council of Rhode Island, a coalition of the state’s environmental advocacy
groups, wrote that the state’s efforts “to mitigate climate change remain
insufficient to meet the goals of the Act on Climate.”
Cecile Richards, the former president of Planned Parenthood
and longtime champion of women's rights and other progressive causes, died on
Monday at the age of 67. The cause was an aggressive brain cancer that had been
diagnosed in 2023.
Richards' husband and three children confirmed her death in
a statement posted on social media.
Richards, the daughter of former Democratic Texas Gov. Ann
Richards, had an early introduction to progressive politics.
At 16 she worked on a
campaign to elect Sarah Waddington, the lawyer who argued in favor of abortion
rights before the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade, and in college
she helped push Brown University to divest from companies that supported
apartheid in South Africa.
After years of labor organizing work, Richards became the
president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She sat at the helm of
the organization for 12 years, leading it as it became more vocal in electoral
politics and fought state-level battles against abortion restrictions.
She was the national face of the organization and spoke
frequently on its behalf at political events and galas, but also stood
shoulder-to-shoulder with abortion rights supporters at pivotal moments in the
fight against right-wing efforts to attack reproductive justice.
Public utilities are guaranteed a profit. The question is how much.
Rep. Megan L. Cotter has introduced
legislation to put a limit in state law on the profit that can be reaped by
utilities distributing electricity and natural gas in Rhode Island.
The legislation is intended to prevent utilities from making
hefty profits at the expense of everyday Rhode Islanders who struggle under
rapidly rising utility bills.
“As the middle class erodes, we need to look at the ways we
enable big businesses to wring large profits out of the public. Corporate greed
has no place in public utilities in particular, because people don’t have any
other option but to use their services. They shouldn’t have to pay higher rates
for basic, vital needs like heat and electricity for the sake of the company’s
profit,” said Representative Cotter (D-Dist. 39, Exeter, Richmond, Hopkinton).
The bill (2025-H 5018), which
Representative Cotter introduced Jan. 9, would limit the return on equity (the
industry term for profit margin) of public electric or gas distribution
utilities in Rhode Island to 4% in any year.
Rhode Island Energy, which distributes both electricity and
natural gas to most of Rhode Island, is allowed a return on equity of 9.275% on
its distribution of gas and electric under the rate agreement that took effect
in September 2018, before the company was sold by National Grid to PPL in 2022.
A settlement made at the time of the sale bound RIE to that agreement for three
years, which means it can file for a change later this year.
According to information provided by the Division of Public
Utilities and Carriers, the company reported its electric profits in the last
two years were lower than the 9.275% allowed in the 2018 rate case. In 2019,
2020 and 2021, they were above (9.62%, 10.74% and 10.02% respectively).
As Donald Trump takes office, his Republican allies in
Congress are already hard at work readying his legislative agenda.
Trump campaigned on a promise to lower costs for Americans.
But so far, the GOP hasn’t proposed a single plan to do that. Instead,
Republicans are laser-focused on passing another round of massive tax breaks
for the ultra-wealthy and corporations.
It’s shaping up to be 2017 all over again.
Trump made a lot of promises on the campaign trail in 2016
too — and quickly broke most of them. But he did fulfill
one: His 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, his only signature legislative
accomplishment, was a field day for the oligarchs and CEOs who helped elect
him.
That law delivered a tax cut for the richest 0.1 percent of
Americans that was 277 times larger than the one teachers
and firefighters got, nearly doubling billionaire wealth in this
country and spiking inequality.
Meanwhile, corporations got a 40 percent discount on their taxes,
which they used to send record stock buybacks to their wealthy
shareholders and pad their profits while they overcharged consumers on everything
from gas to groceries.
The bill never delivered the wage gains or economic growth
Trump promised. But it did add $1.9 trillion to the deficit.
Key provisions of this tax scam expire next year. That would
be welcome news for the vast majority of Americans, who are sick and tired of
tax cuts for the wealthy. But Trump and his Republican colleagues are readying
a supersized set of high-end tax breaks that would make his 2017 legislation
look like child’s play.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
in its weekly
FluView update, confirmed 11 new pediatric deaths for the week
ending on January 11, lifting the total during the 2024-25 flu season to
27.
Overall deaths are also increasing, with flu accounting for
1.5% of deaths in the second week of January. Seasonal influenza activity
remains elevated across most of the country, with an 18.8% positivity rate,
according to clinical lab data.
High flu activity expected for several more weeks
Outpatient visits for flu are trending down, but the CDC
said this is not likely an indication that the flu season has peaked.
"Although some indicators have decreased or remained
stable this week compared to last, this could be due to changes in healthcare
seeking behavior or reporting during the holidays rather than an indication
that influenza activity has peaked," the CDC said. "The country is
still experiencing elevated influenza activity, and that is expected to
continue for several more weeks."
The CDC estimates that there have been at least 12 million
illnesses, 160,000 hospitalizations, and 6,600 deaths from flu so far this
season.
Influenza A H1N1 and H3N2 are still the dominant strains
this season, representing 43.1% and 56.8% of typed samples, respectively, from
public health laboratories last week.
With a guy like Peter Hegseth as nominee for Defense Secretary, how likely is Trump likely to listen to Biden's Surgeon General?
Brown University
To
ring in the new year, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy took a strong
stance against alcohol consumption: he issued an advisory that outlined links
between alcohol and cancer risk and offered recommendations to reduce
alcohol-related cancers, including adding cancer warnings to alcoholic
beverages.
With advisories reserved for public health challenges that require
immediate action, the move offered a clear signal of the surgeon general’s
interest in changing behavior around alcohol consumption.
What does this mean for people who drink alcohol and for the
public at large? Peter Monti, a professor of alcohol and addiction studies at
Brown University, has been studying the bio-behavioral mechanisms that underlie
addictive behavior, as well as its prevention and treatment, for several
decades. He led the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at the Brown
University School of Public Health for nearly 25 years and is now director and
principal investigator of the school’s Center for
Addiction and Disease Risk Exacerbation.
To Monti, the actions recommended by the surgeon general are
reminiscent of those that public health experts advised in the 1970s to address
the health risks of tobacco. And that effort have been spectacularly
successful, he said.
As numerous U.S. corporations bend to the right with the
political winds swirling around Republican President-elect Donald Trump's
imminent return to power, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is following up on his
company's termination of its fact-checking program by ending its diversity,
equity, and inclusion programs and praising "masculine energy" in
corporate America.
"I think a lot of the corporate world is, like, pretty
culturally neutered," Zuckerberg said during an interview with the
eponymous host of "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast on Friday. Meta
is the parent company of social platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and
Threads.
Explaining that he has "three sisters, no
brothers" and "three daughters, no sons," Zuckerberg continued:
"So I'm, like, surrounded by girls and women, like, my whole life. And
it's like...I don't know, there's something, the kind of masculine energy, I
think, is good."
"And obviously, you know, society has plenty of that,
but I think corporate culture was really like trying to get away from it,"
he said. "And I do think that... all these forms of energy are good. And I
think having a culture that, like, celebrates the aggression a bit more has its
own merits that are really positive."
Let us all honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King
By Will Collette
Monday, January 21, 2025, is a national holiday in honor of Dr. King and his legacy of struggle for the rights and freedoms of all.
There is another thing happening tomorrow that is the exact opposite of Dr. King and all he stood for. I'm sure there will be some who will find their own way to celebrate that.
In a very different time and part of Washington D.C. than tomorrow's main event, Dr. King gave his soaring "I Have a Dream Speech" where he spoke of a better America dedicated to the rights of all. He told us he did not expect that America to come about without struggle and loss, without pain and heartache.
He did not call for the angry and aggrieved to rise up in violence to storm the US Capitol to overthrow the government, though he could have. He called for justice, not revenge as he did in this passage:
In the process of gaining our rightful place, we
must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for
freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever
conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not
allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and
again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul
force.
Will we hear the same sentiments expressed in tomorrow's speech. I don't know.
Dr. King exhorted us exercise an urgent patience, a knowledge that we can't expect overnight miracles, but nonetheless must press for faster progress than simply letting nature takes its course. He admonished that "This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism."
We can't give up, as he said: "We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back."
In the coming months we will be tested, as a nation, as a community and as individuals. We will have to make choices. We will have to make decisions, hopefully the right ones.
Personally, I will continue to do all I can and will also reach back to reflect on the great struggles of the past, both to draw hope and also receive guidance on what to do next.
In that spirit, I urge you to read the full text of Dr. King's extraordinary speech as you remember that great man on January 20, 2025.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
I Have a Dream
Delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial,
Washington D.C.
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in
history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a
great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed
the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous
decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had
been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak
to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free.
One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the
manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years
later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast
ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still
languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his
own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a
check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the
Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were
signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note
was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be
guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the
pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on
this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead
of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad
check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is
bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great
vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a
check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of
justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of
the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling
off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make
real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and
desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the
time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid
rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's
children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of
the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will
not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.
Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that
the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude
awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither
rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship
rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our
nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who
stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the
process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds.
Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of
bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane
of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate
into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights
of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro
community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our
white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize
that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize
that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always
march ahead.
We cannot turn back.
There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights,
"When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as
the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can
never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel,
cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the
cities.
We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility
is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as
our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by
signs stating: "For Whites Only.”
We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi
cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.
No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice
rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."1
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of
great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail
cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for
freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the
winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering.
Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back
to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to
Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern
cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you
today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and
tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American
dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and
live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the
sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit
down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a
state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of
oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day
live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but
by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its
vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of
"interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there
in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with
little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted,
and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made
plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the
Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."2
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to
the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain
of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the
jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With
this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle
together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing
that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of
God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I
sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's
pride, From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become
true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New
Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of
Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of
Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when
we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every
city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's
children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and
Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro
spiritual:
The Rhode Island Department of
Environmental Management (DEM) is conducting winter trout and salmon stocking. Stocking
will be in selected areas in Rhode Island beginning Tuesday, Jan. 21, and
continuing through Thursday, Jan. 23.
The following areas will be stocked with the indicated
species:
Barber
Pond, South Kingstown –Golden Rainbow Trout, Rainbow Trout, Salmon
Round
Top Ponds, Burrillville – Brook Trout
Onley
Pond, Lincoln Woods State Park, Lincoln – Golden Rainbow Trout, Rainbow
Trout, Salmon
Carbuncle
Pond, Coventry – Golden Rainbow Trout, Rainbow Trout, Salmon
The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) is advising
the public that a confirmed case of measles has been identified in Rhode
Island.
This was a case in a young, unvaccinated child with a recent
history of international travel. This child was hospitalized at Hasbro
Children's earlier this month. The child is now at home and is well. This is
Rhode Island's first confirmed measles case since 2013.
This child did not have any school or daycare contacts. The
risk to the public is considered low. Contact tracing is being done. The
limited number of patients and families who were believed to have had contact
with this patient during this patient's infectious period are being contacted
and provided with instructions on steps to help prevent any spread.
As is
protocol, RIDOH is taking additional measures in consultation with the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Those include coordinating post-exposure
treatment (prophylaxis) for any contacts who were unvaccinated.
The best way to protect against measles is with the measles,
mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. MMR is safe and effective. Fortunately, Rhode
Island has a very good MMR vaccination rate. Approximately 97% of Rhode Island
kindergarteners have completed the MMR series.
The latest “free speech” proclamation from a Big Tech
billionaire has caused both alarm and a collective eyeroll. Digital rights
activists say the debate over freedom of speech and content moderation has
devolved into a partisan food fight without challenging the virtual monopolies
that a few wealthy companies hold over our data and online experience.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s announced on January 8 that
Instagram and Facebook would remove third-party fact-checking teams and
replace them with a “community notes” system similar to that of Elon Musk’s X,
where users can flag posts for misinformation and clarifying comments are
crowdsourced and added with X’s approval.
Despite lofty talk about “free
speech,” Zuckerberg’s announcement was quickly pegged by critics as a political
move meant to appease Donald Trump, his incoming administration and its very
online fan base.
Despite Trump’s narrow electoral victory, Zuckerberg is only
the latest billionaire mogul to show an unprecedentedlevel of fealty to the incoming
president.
As reporters at Axios put it, Trump is entering office with
“ever-expansive power” as a result. Multiple major tech firms have made large
donations to Trump’s inauguration fund, with Google, Microsoft, Meta and
OpenAI pledging $1 million each.
“I don’t think you have to be a content moderation expert to
be able to look at this and see that Mark Zuckerberg is bending the knee to
Trump,” said Evan Greer, director of the digital rights group Fight for the
Future, in an interview. “This is frankly what human rights experts have been
concerned about for years, when we sort of play this game of working the
referees in a game that the public always loses.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on Pam Bondi’s
nomination to be Attorney General was filled with talk of weaponization of the
Justice Department. Republicans put that label on everything they dislike about
the DOJ’s behavior during the Biden Administration, while Democrats used it to
warn about what will happen if Donald Trump carries through with his vow to get
the Department to exact revenge on his perceived enemies.
Nothing was said about the ways in which the DOJ has been
substantially disarmed over the past eight years and will
probably be further weakened in the next four. That is with regard to the
prosecution of corporations, which are increasingly being treated with leniency
rather than the iron fist commonly proposed for other types of offenders.
Bondi spoke repeatedly during the hearing about her
intention to crack down on drug dealers, terrorists, human traffickers, and
immigration violators. There were some oblique references to business
malfeasance.
As we enter our 57th year as a Charlestown non-profit, we'd like to wish you a very Happy and Healthy New Year and extend our sincere gratitude to you for your support and patronage this past year. Our commitment to your society is the backbone of our mission to educate all about the amazing history of Charlestown.
This past December 6th, the CHS museum welcomed visitors from our local towns during the Charlestown Holiday Ramble. A great deal of story sharing and good cheer made for a busy and magical evening. Mark your calendars for 12/25!
Also this past December, the 1838 Schoolhouse underwent restoration work on its interior ceiling, which had not been addressed since it was moved to its current location on library grounds in 1972. During the project, our contractor discovered an old sign in the attic of the schoolhouse which was tucked away from yesteryear when the building was used as a 4H Club for the young children of Quonnie. Below are some photos from the 1940's of the old 1838 Schoolhouse "clubhouse" and its young members. Perhaps you may know someone?
The Final Result
After over half a year of research, planning and work, the CHS Cemetery Committee has neared completion of one of its most challenging projects at the Church-Perry Burying Ground, located across from the Cross Mills Library. Kudos to this dedicated group!
A Walk Down Memory Lane .....
You won't want to miss this special presentation by Betty Cotter, one of Rhode Island's celebrated journalists, teachers, authors and storytellers.
In this illustrated lecture, Betty (a Charlestown School graduate), will describe the history of the school from its origins as the Pawcatuck Valley School in 1918, through its 20th-century expansion.
Betty will discuss the school's longtime teachers of that period and interspersed throughout her talk will be letters and documents from her mother's years of teaching there. Please share with your friends, teachers and community members who remember their ties with this wonderful part of Charlestown's history. Mark your calendars now!
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For those who wish to remain after the presentation, the CHS will hold a brief meeting for its annual election of officers Light refreshments provided. See you there!
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